The present disclosure relates to an image forming apparatus having a toner container which is detachably attached.
In an electrophotographic type image forming apparatus, a latent image formed on an image carrier is developed into a toner image by a development device. If an amount of toner in the development device decreases to a predetermined amount or less, a toner is supplied to the development device from a toner container. The toner container is detachably attached to an attachment part of an apparatus main body.
The image forming apparatuses may be sold at different prices depending on a selling area even if they are the same machine model. In this case, although the toner containers are used in common for the image forming apparatuses of different prices, different kinds of toner are stored in the toner containers in order to meet the different prices. If the toner containers are used in common, an attachment failure of the toner container to the apparatus main body may easily occur. In order to prevent such an attachment failure, the image forming apparatus may have a configuration such that a non-compatible shaped part having a shape different for each kind of toner is provided in the toner container while a non-compatible shape discriminating member with which the non-compatible shaped part can be engaged is provided in the apparatus main body. By engaging the non-compatible shaped part with the non-compatible shape discriminating member, it is discriminated that a normal toner container is attached to the apparatus main body.
However, in the image forming apparatus, because it is necessary to form the non-compatible shaped part for different kinds of the toner, productivity of the toner container may be low.
In addition, for a dye to mold the toner container, a nesting type dye having a dye for molding a main body and another dye for molding the non-compatible shaped part is used in many cases. Because the non-compatible shaped parts have a small difference in size and position and have a plurality of kinds, a wrong type dye may be used at the molding or it may be difficult to accurately manage the number of the toner containers in a production factory.